That heat has forged an allianceamong some groups and companiesthat are often, and are evennow, battling like cats in a sack onother fronts.

“The mission of the new coalition… is to ensure consumersare not harmed — or their favoriteshows held hostage — in negotiationsfor carriage of broadcastprogramming,” said the group ina statement.

The coalition features virtuallyall of the backers of a petition toget the FCC to step in to requirearbitration and standstill agreementsduring retrans impasses,and comes as Time Warner Cableis trying to negotiate a new carriagedeal for ABC owned-andoperatedTV stations, ESPN andABC Family with The Walt DisneyCo.

“We’ve come together becausewe all recognize that consumersaren’t getting a fair shake frombroadcasters, and face an unfairchoice: Pay more for their favoriteprograms, or have them takenaway,” American Cable Associationpresident Matt Polka said ina statement Wednesday.

The National Association ofBroadcasters minced no words inresponse to ATVA’s big announcementlast week.

“The notion that Time Warnerand its Big Pay TV allies are partof a group designed ‘to protectconsumers’ is about as credibleas BP executives joining Greenpeace,”said National Associationof Broadcasters spokesmanDennis Wharton. “Pay TV built itsbusiness on the backs of broadcastprogramming, and it is notunreasonable for local TV stationsto expect fair compensationfor the most-watched showson television.”

The coalition is an eclecticone that includes ACA, CablevisionSystems, Verizon Communications,Dish Network, AT&T,the American Cable Association,Public Knowledge, the ParentsTelevision Council and Starz Entertainmnent,among more thantwo dozen others.

“I think that tells you something,”says Gigi Sohn, presidentof Public Knowledge, which is acoalition member. “We have a varietyof organizations and companieswho have widly differingpolicy goals. We are fighting halfthose companies with regard tonet neutrality.”

The coalition effort includes awebsite (http://www.americantelevisionalliance.org/) toppedwith pictures of happy familiesapparently gathered around setsthat haven’t been blacked out.Look for the group to launch anad campaign, as media outletscontinue to benefit from ad buysrelated to retransmission-consentspats, the Comcast-NBC Universaldeal and the ongoing debateover broadband regulation.

Perhaps AT&T and Cablevision,then, are the strangest bedfellows,given that the two are in the midst of their own carriage battleover AMC and other of Cablevision’sRainbow Media subsidiarychannels. “Rainbow Media andits parent company, Cablevision,are threatening to take AMC, IFCand WE TV channels away fromAT&T U-verse TV customers,”AT&T said in a statement only anhour or so before the coalitionreleased its statement about thethreats of broadcast programmerspulling channels.

The coalition was officially announcedJuly 14, the same daythat AT&T refiled its complaintagainst Cablevision and MadisonSquare Garden over accessto HD feeds of MSG Media regionalsports networks, programmingAT&T says is important toits viewers.

Then there is Public Knowledge,the group advocating fornetwork neutrality in direct oppositionto telcos and cable companies.Why has PK cast its lotwith MSOs and telcos, whose carriagedisputes among themselveswould appear also to threaten toput frowns on those viewers faces,the virtue of their relativepositions on carriage issues notwithstanding?

“I’m not shocked that Cablevisionis pushing one issue thatthey favor and another issue theydon’t favor,” said Sohn, “but weare pushing for both to be resolved.”She also said this is notabout her group favoring cableover broadcast. “I’m favoring theconsumer getting access to programming,”she said, noting thatin its own, separate commentson retransmission consent, PublicKnowledge advocates applyingany changes applied to theretrans process, like standstillagreements, to program carriagenegotiations.